Depending who you ask about the current state of documentaries in the UK you will get one of two answers. The optimistic answer would be that there are more slots than ever for new and inventive factual formats. With almost 300 digital television channels, most of them catering for special interests, anybody should be able to watch great documentaries at any given moment.

The more pessimistic answer would be that documentaries are disappearing from mainstream terrestrial television and are being replaced by factual entertainment formats or presenter-led series. Traditional documentary strands and slots for classic, one-off, feature length documentaries are becoming a rarity on terrestrial television. Digital television like BBC 4 though has slots such as Storyville that screen feature length documentaries.

Financing a one-off documentary with a length of 52 minutes or more in the UK is still a matter of getting a commission from one of the country’s broadcasters. The UK Film Council, the new funding body that was introduced in 2000 has so far financed long documentaries only as one of several co-producers from the television sector. International co-productions seem to be more frequent among UK commissioning editors and their counterparts abroad. Only very few documentary directors and producers look directly for foreign co-producers for their projects. This will hopefully change in the next few years. Especially in the field of European co-productions documentarists in other EU countries are much further ahead already than their UK colleagues.

With the advancement in technology and the affordability and availability of professional or semi-professional equipment, more and more documentary film makers choose to produce their own films independently from television. For most of them the ultimate goal is to sell their film to one of the television stations or to get a theatrical release. Not all of them succeed though.

Financing a short documentary is somewhat easier, since there are various production funds for short documentaries in the UK. The biggest funder for short film is certainly the UK Film Council’s Digital Shorts scheme, which has financed over 100 films so far. There are various local short film schemes, and many short films get produced with funding from charitable organisations. Most of these shorts only get a local release in the cinema, some might travel nationally and internationally to film festivals, and some of the specialised films might end up being distributed on VHS to a special audience, often for educational purposes.

The concentration of documentary production with the UK’s broadcasters is certainly a reason why a lot of the finished films never travel outside the UK. Once the film is finished, the rights often remain with the broadcaster and the film makers move on to the next project. For the broadcaster, the main interest is to sell the programmes and recoup some of the production costs. One-off documentaries often mean a lot of effort in selling internationally, compared to relatively small fees. So a single documentary wouldn’t be the first choice to be distributed internationally.

Nevertheless, many UK documentarists are very well known and respected abroad, such as Kim Longinotto, Nick Broomfield, Molly Dineen, Leslie Woodhead, Leo Regan, Brian Hill, John Akomfrah, Norma Percy, Paul Watson, Michael Apted, John Pilger, Roger Graef and Clive Gordon. Their films travel widely to international film festivals, receive international theatrical releases and get screened on television around the world.

The Sheffield International Documentary Festival has paved the way for documentary screenings in cinemas across Britain. The festival is an annual week-long event which shows the best documentary films from around the world. Since 1999 the festival has toured highlights of its programme to regional film theatres around the country, in co-operation with the British Film Institute. Across the UK, and especially in London, more and more cinemas are now programming regular documentary slots. Many documentary film makers have started networks and organise screenings of documentaries around the country. Most prominent in London are the Documentary Filmmakers Group (DFG) and DocHouse. The Scottish Doc Space initiative hasn’t started yet but is seeking to encourage cinemas nationwide to introduce regular, weekly screenings of documentaries.

After the international success of Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine and Nicholas Philibert’s Etre et avoir there seems to be an increased audience interest in documentaries. Many UK film makers who produce their documentaries independently, without a TV commission, are recouping their investment through cinematic and semi-theatrical releases. Ken Fero and Tariq Ali’s Injustice and Franny Armstrong’s Drowned Out are the most prominent examples for self-distributed films. British theatrical distributors have identified documentaries as a solid, if slow, investment and are releasing more documentaries. Most of the companies that have a dedicated documentary strategy and release more than one doc a year are independents. The big international distributors distribute documentaries rather like one-off exceptions than on a regular basis.

The UK has a number of good film and media schools, that offer dedicated documentary courses. There is an increasing number of independent training initiatives for young and not-so young film makers, most of them offering courses on specialised subjects. Most of the up-and-coming film makers are hoping to make feature length one-off documentaries, despite the lack of slots on television.

And what where the great UK documentaries of the last year? Looking at the most prestigious British awards, the Grierson Award, the BAFTAs and the RTS Awards and the UK film festivals, here are the films to look out for:

Aileen – Life And Death Of A Serial Killer, Nick Broomfield
The Day I Will Never Forget, Kim Longinotto
Feltham Sings, Brian Hill & Roger Graef (The Flaherty Documentary Award, BAFTA 2003)
The Game Of Their Lives, Daniel Gordon (RTS Television Sports Award for Sports Documentary 2002)
Hoover Street Revival, Sophie Fiennes
London Orbital, Chris Petit & Iain Sinclair
The Lost Boys, Clive Gordon
Milosevic – Slobo’s Way, Leslie Woodhead
Riles/Life On The Tracks, Ditsi Carolino